Kenyan airstrike kills dozens of al-Shabab militants in Somalia

According to the KDF, two vehicles and three trucks loaded with ammunition were also destroyed on Thursday during an airstrike that targeted the militants’ base in the Garbaharey area.

“Among the dead include the al-Shabaab Buurdub Region Commander Sheikh Nuur Dhere. It is believed that Nuur Dhere had been behind most of the IED [improvised explosive device] attacks in the region,” KDF spokesman Colonel Cyrus Oguna said on Friday.

The KDF, which has supplied troops to the UN-backed AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM) assisting the Somali National Army (SNA), regularly carries out airstrikes in the northern, central, and southern regions.

“Several members of the militia groups perished with many others injured,” Oguna added.

Kenya has beefed up security along its border with Somalia since it dispatched soldiers into the country in October 2012 to chase al-Shabab militants, who it accuses of being behind the kidnapping of several foreigners in Kenyan territory. However, al-Shabab has denied involvement in the kidnappings.

Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

The weak Western-backed transitional government in Mogadishu has been battling al-Shabab for the past five years and is propped up by a 10,000-strong African Union force from Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, and Djibouti.

SDN-Nairobi